Types

The “Real China Aquaculture Experience" Field Trip

The first two days of the “Real China” Aquaculture Field Trips has been fruitful.

After a delayed arrival, we visited the Huangsha Seafood Wholesale Market in Guangzhou in the evening— after 8 pm. But the market was still busy with buyers in front of shops, which exhibited all kinds of seafood products at their fronts.

The field trip delegation members were divided into different groups and observed different shops, inquiring about the prices, etc.

The shops were mostly small-scale ones. The owners were eager to promote their products upon seeing the members.

One of the shop owners even offered me kickbacks if I could help him persuade the “foreigners” to buy his stuffs, which indicates that the prices at the market are sort of flexible.

The shop runners told me their products are from different parts of China. And what most buyers care about is whether the fish was caught in the wild or raised on fish farms.

Wild fish are always preferred because they represent better taste, and less pollution.

But of course different customers have different needs; after all, wild fish may cost several times more than aquaculture equivalents.

On Sunday we visited the Zhapo Bay aquaculture base in Yangjiang, in Guangdong province. There we interviewed Liang Chifen, who is the president of the Cage Culture Association of Hailin Island in Yangjiang.

He introduced the background of cage culture in the region and the situation the local fish farmers are facing. That’s useful information for me.

Well, we have an early set-off tomorrow again. We are heading for Zhanjiang, where Hualian, a big seafood processing company is based. Looking forward to this new journey.